Soft Drink Sweetener Blamed for Obesity

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Nutritionists Say High Fructose Corn Syrup Linked to Extra Calories

April 1, 2004 -- Super-sized servings of burgers and fries head
the list of foods being blamed for America's obesity epidemic, but that
extra-large soda you drink to wash it all down may be even more to blame,
several nutrition researchers charge.

They say it is no accident that the rise in obesity in the U.S.
has paralleled the increase in consumption of high-fructose corn syrup, the
sweetener now found in almost all sugar-based soft drinks and sweetened fruit
juices. Between 1970 and 1990, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) consumption
increased by more than 1,000%, largely because the nation's soft drink
manufacturers switched from sucrose to HFCS, obesity researcher George A Bray,
MD, tells WebMD. The researchers say that this increase far exceeds the intake
of other foods or food groups.

"Clearly there is no one food that is responsible for the
rise in obesity, but we believe that the increased consumption of soft drinks
and other beverages sweetened with HFCS may play a significant role," he
says. "If I could do one thing to change the food supply, it would be to
eliminate all caloric sweeteners from the beverages we drink."

Empty Calories

Obesity has more than doubled in the U.S. from 1960 to 2000,
with much of the increase occurring within the latter two decades, according to
government figures. In the last decade, the percentage of adults 20 years and
older that are classified as obese or overweight increased to 55%. An estimated
97 million adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese.

In an effort to identify dietary trends, Bray and colleagues
examined food and beverage consumption records from the Department of
Agriculture for the period between 1967 and 2000. They estimated that Americans
eat 132 calories each day of high fructose corn syrup, and that the figure is
closer to 300 calories for the top 20% of Americans.

Nutrition researcher Barry M. Popkin tells WebMD that Americans
are eating between 200 and 300 more calories per capita per day than they were
three decades ago. He says between one-third and one-half of those calories
come from soft drinks. Popkin co-authored the commentary, published in the
April issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition